Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bonding apparatus that bonds a substrate and a support and a carrying method in the bonding apparatus.
Background Art
As functions of cellular phones, digital AV apparatuses, and IC cards become more advanced, there is an increasing demand for mounted semiconductor silicon chips (hereinafter, referred to as chips) to be smaller and thinner so as to highly integrate the chips in a package. In order to realize the high integration of chips in a package, the thickness of a chip is required to be thin to a range of 25 μm to 150 μm.
However, when a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer) that becomes a base of a chip is thinned by being grinded, the strength thereof is weakened, and the wafer is easily cracked or warped. In addition, since it is difficult for the wafer of which strength is weakened by being thinned to be automatically carried, the wafer has to be carried by hand, and thus handling thereof is cumbersome.
Therefore, there has been developed a wafer support system in which a plate which is called a support plate and formed of glass or rigid plastic is bonded to a wafer to be grinded, so as to maintain the strength of the wafer and prevent the generation of cracking and warping of the wafer. In the wafer support system, the strength of the wafer can be maintained, and thus the carrying of the thinned semiconductor wafer can be automated.
The wafer and the support plate is bonded by using an adhesive tape, a thermoplastic resin, and an adhesive agent. After the wafer to which a support plate is bonded is thinned and before the wafer is diced, the support plate is separated from the substrate.
As means for bonding a support plate to a wafer, a bonding apparatus including an overlapping unit that overlaps a wafer and a support plate in a predetermined position before the wafer and the support plate are bonded is disclosed in JP-A-2008-182127 (published on Aug. 7, 2008). In addition, a bonding apparatus including a decompressable first process chamber that has position matching means for performing position matching between the substrate and the support before the substrate and the support are bonded, and a decompressable second process chamber including bonding means for bonding the substrate and the support which are subjected to the position matching, in which the first process chamber and the second process chamber are formed such that at least one set of the substrate and the support which is subjected to the position matching can be moved from the first process chamber to the second process chamber under decompression is disclosed in JP-A-2012-59758 (published on Mar. 22, 2012).